Group serving immigrants on Northwest Side gets new warehouse-size space

An organization that helps immigrants and underserved families is getting a new space to expand on the Northwest Side.

The organization, Onward Neighborhood House, plans to install a food pantry at 2644 N. Central Ave. in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood and eventually house partner organizations there as well.

At 31,000 square feet, the new space is roughly the size of a warehouse and will alleviate a pressing need for room.

“This building will be good for us to expand our services and add other services,” longtime executive director Mario Garcia said.

The organization provides free access to adult education, food and child care.

Founded in West Town, the organization moved in 2008 to the Northwest Side neighborhood that’s home to the largest Hispanic population in Chicago, according to the most recent U.S. Census figures.

The food pantry and child care programs are among their largest programs, and they’ve been running out of room at locations in the 5400 block of West Diversey Avenue, where they serve about 150 children, ages 2 to 12.

The weekly food pantry serves about 200 people, up significantly from before the pandemic when they assisted about 60 people every week, Garcia said.

The new pantry will look like a store and be stocked in part by a rooftop garden. The organization aims to open in March 2023 and will host monthly food giveaways - the first was held Oct. 15 - until then.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Beyond the pantry, Garcia hopes to install a welcoming center for immigrants and open a medical clinic, business incubator and community center where people can “charge their phones, watch a movie, read the paper and just hang out,” Garcia said.

The building was donated by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, which began working with the organization in early 2021 after foundation officials made a surprise visit to one of their food giveaways.

Every inch of the space was maximized, recalled program officer Lyle Allen.

“The fact that they could run such a busy food program out of that space, we knew that if we could help build a bigger place for it, the people would come,” Allen said.

Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.